The Magician's Assistant

When Parsifal, a handsome and charming magician, dies suddenly, his widow Sabine - who was also his faithful assistant for 20 years - learns that the family he claimed to have lost in a tragic accident is very much alive and well.

Perfect Peace: A Novel

When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother, Emma Jean, tells her bewildered daughter, "You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain't what you was supposed to be. So from now on, you gon' be a boy. It'll be a little strange at first, but you'll get used to it, and this'll be over after while." From this point forward, his life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events. Meanwhile, the Peace family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment.

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Of all of John Irving's books, this is the one that lends itself best to audio. In print, Owen Meany's dialogue is set in capital letters; for this production, Irving himself selected Joe Barrett to deliver Meany's difficult voice as intended. In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys – best friends – are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary and terrifying.

The Probable Future

Women of the Sparrow family have unusual gifts. Elinor can detect falsehood. Her daughter, Jenny, can see people's dreams when they sleep. Granddaughter Stella has a mental window to the future - a future that she might not want to see.

Travels with Charley in Search of America

In September 1960, John Steinbeck and his poodle, Charley, embarked on a journey across America, from small towns to growing cities to glorious wilderness oases. Travels with Charley is animated by Steinbeck’s attention to the specific details of the natural world and his sense of how the lives of people are intimately connected to the rhythms of nature—to weather, geography, the cycles of the seasons. His keen ear for the transactions among people is evident, too, as he records the interests and obsessions that preoccupy the Americans he encounters along the way.

Run

Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children, all of his children, safe.

The New York Trilogy

Paul Auster's signature work, The New York Trilogy, consists of three interlocking novels: City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room - haunting and mysterious tales that move at the breathless pace of a thriller.

White Teeth

Archie's life has disintegrated. Fresh from a dead marriage, middle-aged Archie stretches out a vacuum hose, seals up his car and prepares to die. But unbeknownst to him, his darkest hour is also his luckiest day. With the opening of a butcher's shop, his life is saved and soon he is on his way to beginning a new life with a young Jamaican woman looking for the last man on earth.

Housekeeping

A modern classic, Housekeeping is the story of Ruth and her younger sister, Lucille, who grow up haphazardly, first under the care of their competent grandmother, then of two comically bumbling great-aunts, and finally of Sylvie, their eccentric and remote aunt. The family house is in the small Far West town of Fingerbone, set on a glacial lake, the same lake where their grandfather died in a spectacular train wreck and their mother drove off a cliff to her death.

My Life as a Man

At its heart lies the marriage of Peter and Maureen Tarnopol, a gifted young writer and the woman who wants to be his muse but who instead is his nemesis. Their union is based on fraud and shored up by moral blackmail, but it is so perversely durable that, long after Maureen’s death, Peter is still trying—and failing—to write his way free of it.

The Prince of Tides

Spanning 40 years, this is the story of turbulent Tom Wingo, his gifted and troubled twin sister Savannah, and their struggle to triumph over the dark and tragic legacy of the extraordinary family into which they were born.

Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon

Garrison Keillor's latest book is about the wedding of a girl named Dede Ingebretson, who comes home from California with a guy named Brent. Dede has made a fortune in veterinary aromatherapy; Brent bears a strong resemblance to a man wanted for extortion who's pictured on a poster in the town's post office. Then there's the memorial service for Dede's aunt Evelyn, who led a footloose and adventurous life after the death of her husband 17 years previously.

The English Major

Newly divorced and robbed of his farm by his real-estate shark of an ex-wife, 60-something Cliff is off on a road trip across America, on a mission to rename all the states and state birds and redeem them from the banal names men have given them.Cliff's adventures take him through a whirlwind affair with a former student from his high-school teaching days 20-some years before, to a snake farm in Arizona owned by an old classmate, and into the high-octane existence of his son, a big-time movie producer.

The Bonfire of the Vanities

Tom Wolfe's best-selling modern classic tells the story of Sherman McCoy, an elite Wall Street bond trader who has it all: wealth, power, prestige, a Park Avenue apartment, a beautiful wife, and an even more beautiful mistress - until one wrong turn sends Sherman spiraling downward into a humiliating fall from grace. A car accident in the Bronx involving Sherman, his girlfriend, and two young lower-class black men sets a match to the incendiary racial and social tensions of 1980s New York City.

One True Thing

A young woman sits in jail, accused of the mercy killing of her dying mother. She didn't do it, but she thinks she knows who did. In the last months of her life, Ellen Gulden's mother revealed startling secrets that challenged everything Ellen believed about her family. Now, in jail, Ellen believes those secrets will tell her who had the courage to end her mother's suffering.

Big Trouble

A chain of events that will change the lives of each and every character will leave some of them wiser, some of them deader, and some of them definitely looking for a new line of work. With a wicked wit, razor-sharp observations, rich characters, and a plot with more twists than the Inland Waterway, Dave Barry makes his debut a complete and utter triumph.

The Bette Davis Club

The morning of her niece's wedding, Margo Just drinks a double martini and contemplates the many mistakes she's made in her fifty-odd years of life. Spending three decades in love with a wonderful but unattainable man is pretty high up on her list of missteps, as is a long line of unsuccessful love affairs accompanied by a seemingly endless supply of delicious cocktails.

The Darkest Child

Delores Phillips' heart-rending debut novel is set in 1950s Georgia where most of Rozelle Quinn's 10 children can pass as white. Her brightest child, Tangy Mae, however, has the darkest skin of them all, and she longs to continue her education. But Rozelle thinks it's time for 13-year-old Tangy Mae to follow in her own footsteps and earn money "cleaning for whites" and bedding men at the "Farmhouse."

The Adventures of Augie March

Augie is a poor but exuberant boy growing up in Chicago during the Depression. While his friends all settle into chosen professions, Augie demands a special destiny. He tests out a wild succession of occupations, proudly rejecting each as too limiting - until he tangles with the glamorous perfectionist Thea.

Leaving Cheyenne

As the world enters a new century, three teenagers forge a future for themselves on the wild Texas grasslands: Gideon Fry, torn between going his way and following his father's footsteps; Johnny McCloud, whose restless spirit finds its solace traversing an open range; and Molly Taylor, the woman they both love. Rugged, bold and volatile, the three of them come of age in this tender and intimate novel of the heart.

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine: A Novel

Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she's thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy. But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office.

Sing Them Home

Everyone knows the story of Aneira Hope Jones, the woman swallowed up by a tornado, and of the painful legacy bestowed upon her children. Larken, Gaelan, and Bonnie have grown into adulthood enshrouded in myth and unresolved grief, longing for closure and for release from their identities as motherless children. Both knowingly and unknowingly, the Jones siblings have condemned themselves to the task of interpreting and paying homage to their mother's life; thus, they have never claimed their own.

Traveler

News of the sudden death of his childhood friend compels Jono Riley, an aging bartender and part-time actor, to return for a few days to the place where he grew up, the working-class neighborhoods of East Providence, Rhode Island. Author McLarty weaves the story of Jono's return with that of his coming-of-age in the early 1960s, including the story of some mysterious shootings.

American Rust

Set in a beautiful but economically devastated Pennsylvania steel town, American Rust is a novel of the lost American dream and the desperation-as well as the acts of friendship, loyalty, and love-that arise from its loss. From local bars to train yards to prison, it is the story of two young men, bound to the town by family, responsibility, inertia, and the beauty around them, who dream of a future beyond the factories and abandoned homes.

Publisher's Summary

Award-winning actor and playwright Ron McLarty is well known for his audiobook performances. What fewer people realize is that he's also an accomplished author. In this wonderfully quirky novel, available exclusively as an audiobook, McLarty takes readers on a quest to find hope and redemption with an unlikely hero.

Smithson Ide is 43 years old and weighs 279 pounds when his parents die in an accident. Lost in memories of childhood, Smithson uncovers his old Raleigh bicycle in the garage and begins a cross-country journey to find his beautiful, but tragically psychotic sister. Keenly aware of how ridiculous he must appear, Smithson nonetheless perseveres through a journey that is hilarious and horrifying. It is a trip, he soon realizes, that might provide his last chance to become the person he has always wanted to be.

In late 2003, in his column in Entertainment Weekly, Stephen King called The Memory of Running "the best novel you won't read this year." This glowing endorsement of the audiobook resulted in Ron McLarty receiving a $2 million two-book deal from Viking Penguin. Also, Warner Brothers has shelled out big bucks for the movie rights to The Memory of Running, for which McLarty will write the script.

What the Critics Say

"Ron McLarty's The Memory of Running is the best novel you won't read this year. But you can experience it, and I'm all but positive that you'll thank me for the tip if you do....What I hope is that you'll order a copy and experience it for yourself....It's bighearted and as satisfying as one of your mom's home-cooked Sunday dinners." (Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly)

I first heard about this book while reading Stephen King's review of it in his Entertainment Weekly column. I put in a request for the title here at Audible and I am so glad they added it. This really is a terrific book, read by the author who is one of my favorite narrators. I didn't know what to expect at first and certainly did not see myself caught up in the story like I became. It is a truly heartwarming tale about a born loser who seems to be just smart enough to know he isn't very smart. You begin to root him on and as the tale and his journey progress he may have the chance to become the person he always wanted to be. I have listened to many audiobooks over the years, a few that I couldn't stand, some that were simply tolerated, many that I really liked and this one that I wished would just never end. I couldn't wait to find out what would happen next. This book was in turns hilarious and touching. A terrific effort by Ron McLarty and I hope to see more from him. I recommend this book whole-heartedly no matter what your normal listening tastes may be.

After hearing the terrific narrator Ron McLarty talk about how he felt this was a book written to be listened to, I had to agree. The story and charactors are clear and the sense of place cleanly defined. While there may not be a lot of depth to Smithy you get a great sense of exactly who he is and what he is about. Also there are holes in the narrative, but McLarty's prose and narration glide so smoothly over them, that you are swept along with Smithy as he travels the U.S. on his bike and traveling his past in his mind. What keeps this book from being great is perhaps the lack of real speed bumps and potholes that would have given the book a sense of tension. Still, the charactors we meet are well worth the visit

I usually like suspense, thrillers, anything that makes my heart pound. But I thought I would try something a little different - and I must say that this is the best possible book I could have chosen for my exploration. Gentle yet strong, lost, yet deeply sure in a million little ways, the main character touches me, and gives me hope for humanity. It is lovingly written, with great love for all the characters, and the reading makes you a part of the book. A marvelous read.

You can't help but fall in love with the protagonist, Smithy. Ron McClarty does an excellent job endearing you to Smithy and his family. In a way, it reminded me of Catcher in The Rye, and accordingly it shows that you are never too old to come of age!

After the first three hours, I almost put this one away. I am so glad I did not.

In those first three hours, the simplicity of the main character almost drove me away. In the end, I came to appreciate his simplicity more than anything.

Once Smithson Ide begins his long journey, breaking free from his cloistered, pathetic existence, the story quickly gains momentum. I became engrossed in his quest, remembering simple joys I have not thought of since childhood. What followed was an entertaining listen, sincere retrospection of my own life, and a main character I will not soon forget.

Through all the tragedies that befall him, Smithson Ide's decency and appreciation of the great gift of life lift him to a higher existence.

Well done, Ron McLarty - on both fronts. Good writing and sensitive, meaningful narration. I would highly recommend this book to others and look forward to your next effort.

This book made me smile and tear up. I like a book that makes me feel. The protagonists are sister and brother bound together in a story about love and loss. I stumbled upon this book and I am so glad I did.

I tried and tried to like this book. But I couldn't. I kept hoping it would end, but it went on endlessly and aimlessly, until it got the better of me. I had to quit.

Ron McLarty is a wonderful reader, and he has a glimmer of hope as a writer. However, he needs to take plot and character lessons. The book had no plot and, on the few occasions when it tried at plot, it failed. The characters started out as likeable, but then they grey tiresome in their exceeding simplicity, almost stupid and silly ways.

I would have given this book one star, but the reading by Mr. McLarty, as usual, is excellent, even though the words went nowhere.

I think Mr. McLarty might actually make it as a writer someday, but not on this one, I'm sad to say.

When I research and bought this book all I could see were all the 5 star raving reviews and the Stephen King endorsement. To me, this story is frustrating, slow, boring and lacking plot. The characters are wandering, undeveloped and what is there is really just plain unlikable. I can't recommend it--though based on reviews others seem to love this dreary book. I'm just sorry that I wasted even a minute on this listen. Disappointing.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book - extremely well written and even better that it is narrated by the author. Ron McClarty does an excellent job of transporting you through the emotional and physical journey of the main character. Honest, authentic, and simple - this story will make you think about the adventure that may lie right outside your door if only you had the courage to go and find it.